Fill a Fish sculptures installed around Isle of Man coast

The giant marine-inspired sculptures aim to encourage recycling and reduce plastic waste around the island's coastline

Five giant beach clean sea life-inspired structures have now been installed in coastal locations around the Isle of Man.

The ‘Fill a Fish’ sculptures have been created as part of a Suntera Global initiative to encourage the disposal of plastic waste, which can be collected within the sculptures.

The sculptures have now been placed in close proximity to beaches around the island with each creation being given a name – Magnus the Seal in Castletown, Bottle Barry the Basking Shark in Douglas, Sammy Perkin in Peel, Munchy Mackerel in Port Erin and Cleo the Rockstar Fish in Ramsey.

The sculptures were all designed by children from local primary schools following a competition held over the course of 2021, with five different sea creatures ultimately being chosen from over 600 entries and brought to life by Darren Jackson and Stephanie Quayle from Farmyard Studio.

The winning designs, which were formally unveiled at a special reception at Government House in August, were created by Alexandra Lledo-Mulvey from Peel Clothworkers School, Caleb Crellin from Anagh Coar Primary School, Finlo Stanford from Scoill Phurt Le Moirrey, Imogen Crennell from Bunscoill Rhumsaa, and Nicole Astell-Burt from The Buchan School.

The project was undertaken by Suntera Global in collaboration with two local charities - Beach Buddies and Isle Listen. Beach Buddies was founded in 2006 to tackle the amount of rubbish being left on local beaches, while Isle Listen is an early intervention and positive mental health charitable initiative established in 2019.

Mark Reynolds, Chief Operating Officer at Suntera Global, said:

“This initiative is a real community effort which we hope will have a significant and measurable impact on our island coastlines. After seeing the effort put in by so many people to make this initiative such a success, including the schoolchildren, the artists, our charity partners and our staff at Suntera Global, it is wonderful to see the sculptures now in place in their new homes around the island.

“The ‘Fill a Fish’ initiative brings together a number of Suntera Global’s values, including a commitment to protect our natural environment, and we hope that the sculptures will encourage all those who are out and about enjoying our fantastic coastline to dispose of their waste properly, resulting in less plastic waste on our beaches.”

Bill Dale, Founder, Beach Buddies, added:

“Around 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in oceans around the world each year, and in the Isle of Man alone around half of all litter found our beaches is single-use plastics. We need to change that and it’s been fantastic to work with Suntera Global on this initiative to provide islanders and visitors to our beautiful island with such a creative solution aimed at protecting our natural environment.”

Andrea Chambers, Chief Executive at Isle Listen, commented:

“This project is about more than the environment. It’s also about wellbeing, which ties in absolutely with what Isle Listen does with schools around the island. It’s a fantastic example of collaboration between charities and the business community.”

To find out more about the Fill a Fish project, visit our ESG page.